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Jesus taught many things about the Sabbath day and how to keep this holy time separate and distinct from the rest of the week when we can work and do all those things that need doing such as shopping, cleaning, keeping appointments at various places of business, sporting activities and pretty much anything you can think of that one does as a hobby — for myself I enjoy reading medical books as my career has been in this field since January 1990. We therefore have six days to please our own will (of course within God's laws and the local laws of the land enforced by governmental authorities unless they contradict God's laws) by engaging in these things. Then there is the Preparation Day each week on Friday to ensure all the last minute things are taken care of such as preparing and cooking meals to ensure there is enough left over to enjoy on the Sabbath so our holy time is as full as can be. This is how God instructed the Israelites thousands of years ago when they came out of Egypt, and now, by extension, modern day Israelites — that's us! Read Exodus 16:23 carefully. All God asks is for us to honour Him by setting aside this one day we refer to as the Sabbath in order to worship Him while the rest of the world calls it Saturday after Saturn the Roman god of agriculture. If God has called us to follow Him we therefore keep the Sabbath wholeheartedly as we know to do good by keeping His commandments, otherwise it is sin, and we surely want and desire with great passion to do the right thing by loving and pleasing our heavenly Father who gave us everything that we might live (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3, James 4:17).
When humans complicate things as we are prone to do, problems arise and confusion enters troubled hearts and minds. There is beautiful simplicity in Christ and whenever times come with all sorts of confusing doctrines and false ideas we need to look to God's word in order to rightly divide the word of truth instead of listening to others. Ephesians 4:12-14 explains this well. Furthermore, the apostle Paul also wrote the following impassioned and heartfelt words we must heed in 2 Corinthians 11:2-4 "For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!" Paul knew that God's elect would struggle at times because the devil is always working day and night ceaselessly and tirelessly to separate us from God with deception, lies, and anything this monster concocts with evil intentions.
One such deception the devil would like us to fall for is related to the keeping of the Sabbath for the Sabbath sets us apart from the rest of the world (Exodus 31:13, Deuteronomy 5:15, Isaiah 56:2). Let us consider Luke 14:5 which states "Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Do we recognise these words from Jesus as He spoke to those present on the Sabbath, teaching hardened hearts among Pharisees who refused to allow healing among the people but hypocritically rescued animals on the Sabbath? Now compare Matthew 12:11-12 "Then He said to them, 'What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.'” Jesus is making it plain and simple for us to understand that this is an emergency. It does not have to be an ox, ass, donkey or a sheep in that pit or ditch, for any living creature trapped and injured should be rescued timely with urgency on any day even including the Sabbath. Jesus used common, every day examples in order for anyone including children to understand His message. How much and even moreso pertaining to human beings over animals! Was this irony lost on their hardened hearts?
Emergencies are usually life threatening and need immediate attendance. How loving and merciful God is to think of everything and include this in His laws knowing that emergencies will come at times in our lives despite our best plans as we cannot prevent these, but we can definitely help out at such times without any guilt as our conscience is free to obey. Unusual conditions such as inclement weather or an accident with an animal getting loose, a broken fence, cattle injured from a vehicle accident (just this week on TV we saw yet another incident with many sheep involved, sadly some were destroyed because of the severity of their injuries) are just a few examples provided "off the top of my head" which instantly come to mind. The point is whatever the emergency it will be rare, not a usual weekly occurrence and God makes provision for this as He is so merciful, loving and values life.
To date thankfully there have been no real emergencies to attend to on the Sabbath since November 2006 when I first started keeping the Sabbath. If something arises in the future then a decision will be made firstly whether it is a real emergency using discernment or whether it can be resolved by asking for help from God as He may intervene straight away in a miraculous way after prayer is said. Many of us know and understand that as soon as we get up off the floor from kneeling, intervention by way of answered prayer has occurred on various occasions in the past. We need to pray first always, then with God's help, we set about to do all that we can to rectify a life or death situation. For why would we not seek out God first in every single situation, especially emergencies? To live otherwise is fraught with trouble and just plain foolish to ignore or shut out our God who wants us to come to Him by building our relationship with even stronger bonds.
Discernment is important, you may have concluded by now. So let us go through an exercise of determining what constitutes an emergency and what does not. A cough, sore scratchy throat, or head cold needs rest and we stay home to quarantine. A low grade fever, aches and pains from arthritis, and other minor health issues are manageable. Sudden seizures and broken bones you will agree are serious and require immediate attention so we ask God for help and seek out an anointed cloth. You may already be healed by God through your faithful actions of asking for this, even before it comes in the mail for those of us without a local Pastor. If not then you can choose to go to hospital for further treatment and medication. Some prefer to have their MO (medical officer) attend first at home before going to hospital. The choice is ours and God will never take our free will away, preferring that we work through all these things in order to practice wisdom. Healing is good on the Sabbath when it is needed and especially when we go to God first (Matthew 6:33). Show God your faith, trust and belief in Him.
Then there are those times when we inadvertently forget to bring a carton of milk for tea and coffee after the Sabbath service. Undoubtedly we will all survive if our hot drinks do not contain a splash of milk, therefore there is no need to go to the shops — no emergency here! After the most recent festival of the Days of Unleavened Bread there was no need to purchase a loaf of bread to make sandwiches on the Sabbath, or to buy cakes or biscuits to take just because we have put leaven out of our homes for 7 days and these days are now complete. It is still the Sabbath and routine shopping ceases. Perhaps some have become so comfortable and used to popping into the shops for any inconvenience on the Sabbath? We can go without bread for another day and this will surely not hurt us. Discernment counts. Choices count. We must never take God's goodness for granted. Are we not convinced He has things exactly in place as they presently are to see what we do when an inconvenience arises and when an emergency arises? Our attitude is extremely important and healthy fear/awe of God is paramount in order to resist our carnal human nature, that naturally wants to place our wants before God's instructions. We must resist and overcome these worldly things involved with placing ourselves first, like a false idol.
In conclusion, we are to exercise wise discernment on the Sabbath day and provide help to those in an emergency or distress whether human or animal when it is in the power of our hand to do so — this will be rare or may never happen. God's laws and instructions are perfectly clear for us to go to and understand. We are always to seek God's will and help first then provide the follow up, for this is to do good. In contrast we are not to take advantage of God by justifying an inconvenience as an emergency, because we would be skating on thin ice here and twisting scripture to satisfy carnal desires. God knows whether we value His Sabbath and have His law written on our heart, or whether we are just going through the motion of attending with our heart not in it. Study Proverbs 2 for the value of wisdom and ask for discernment if in doubt. Isaiah 66:1-2, Psalm 2:11, Psalm 119:120, and Hebrews 12:28 are all good memory verses to meditate upon.
Finally, and most wonderfully in no coincidence, God has provided a sound sermon full of His wisdom to inspire presented by Mr. Rick Shabi (pronounced Shay bee) about the keeping of the Sabbath day, which has just been placed on the members online site with United Church of God. Listening to this while cooking a lamb roast on the preparation day after writing this article earlier in the week was like finding golden treasure, a pearl or pearls of great price, like clean and fine white icing on a wedding cake, and confirmation yet again that God is always intently watching us to see how we keep the Sabbath and whether we value His blessings. Hopefully we will all pass the test of keeping God's Sabbath holy and free from anything this world offers. https://www.ucg.org/sermons/holy-ground-0